"The Tragedy of the Commons," written by Garrett Hardin 20 years ago serves as a simple, yet excellent illustration which explains some of the social stresses due to competition evident today. Competition due to overcrowding exacerbates conflict, in a neighborhood, state country or region. One person's gain is another's loss. Given one pie--be it finite natural resources or available full-time jobs--adding additional consumers must be at the expense of others.
Students should read and voice their opinions on this classic piece, "The Tragedy...": The tragedy of the commons develops in this way. Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons. Such an arrangement may work reasonably satisfactorily for centuries because tribal wars, poaching, and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below the carrying capacity of the land. Finally, however, comes the day of reckoning, that is, the day when the long-desired goal of social stability becomes a reality. At this point, the inherent logic of the commons remorselessly generates tragedy.
As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, "What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?" This utility has one negative and one positive component.
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1. The positive component is a function of the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the proceeds from the sale of the additional animal, the positive utility is nearly + 1.
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2. The negative component is a function of the additional overgrazing created by one more animal. Since, however, the effects of overgrazing are shared by all the herdsmen, the negative utility for any particular decisionmaking herdsman is only a fraction of - 1.
Adding together the component partial utilities, the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another.... But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy.
Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit -- in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.
The Tragedy of the Commons is so applicable to our students here in the United States, particularly because of welfare and other social institutions, as well as the support of the extended family. Citizens are cared for by the Commons, and if "irresponsible breeding" occurs, children are often cared for by family or by the state. But as population numbers increase and pressures on the social system are escaberated, can we be assured of government assistance? Already, many state and federal programs are refusing to support families who cannot sustain themselves. In Connecticut, a family is provided with 18 months of welfare assistance.
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It is sad to say but true: if each human family were dependent only on its own resources and if overbreeding brought its own "punishment" -- then there would be no public interest in controlling the breeding of families. But our society is deeply committed to the welfare state, and is therefore confronted with another aspect of the tragedy of the commons.
One way to understand the stress increasing human numbers place on social and economic institutions is through the formula, H = R/P. This means that human condition (H) is determined by available resources (R), divided by population (P). Simply put, the more people who require a slice of any particular pie, the smaller the piece each one receives. Should resources decline or population increase, the human condition must fall. Here, in the United States, we have both--resource depletion and population increase.
This tragedy has consequences: competition for services and conflict. There are already excessive demands on public services in the United States: on education and health care, for example, two current hotly debated issues. Our healthcare debate is centered on growing demand for a finite service: who will pay for the increasing number of uninsured? There is increasing ethnic conflict in the United States as a growing population competes for finite services that must be paid for at the expense of others. There is, for example, growing hostility in the US toward legal immigration. Consider laws passed in California in 1986 which restricts access to social services and education. Citing concerns about job losses, higher taxes and demands on services, both state and federal lawmakers have passed punitive legislation targeting immigrants.
There is a social carrying capacity. People want tolerable work-to-home commuting conditions, favorable conditions for childrearing, and safe neighborhoods. Where population size detracts from the capacity to provide these amenities, overpopulation exists.
There is a strong correlation between population growth and declines in social well-being in the United States. According to the1996 Index of Social Health published by Fordham University, the social health of America stands at its lowest point in the twenty-five years since the study began. The Index of Social Health monitors sixteen factors to measure the quality of life in America: infant mortality, children in poverty, teen suicide, drug abuse, unemployment, average weekly earnings, poverty among those over 65, homicides, food stamp coverage, access to affordable housing and the gap between rich and poor. Overall, since Fordham began to monitor these issues, America's social health has declined from an indicator scale of 74 in 1970 to 37 in 1994 - a drop of 50 percent.
Stresses on our social carrying capacity alarm many. Clinton adviser Michael Mandelbaum has said, "We have a foreign policy today in the shape of a doughnut--lots of peripheral interests but nothing at the center. The environment, I will argue, is part of a terrifying array of problems that will define a new threat to our security. This is an alarmist view shared by many. Futuristic doomsday prophesies are not reserved for the environmentalists.
Thomas Fraser Homer-Dixon, who is the head of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at the University of Toronto, integrates the two fields--military-conflict studies and the study of the physical environment. In "On the Threshold: Environmental Changes as Causes of Acute Conflict" he predicts future wars and civil violence will often arise from scarcities of resources such as water, cropland, forests, and fish. "Think of a stretch limo in the potholed streets of New York City, where homeless beggars live. Inside the limo are the air-conditioned post-industrial regions of North America, Europe, the emerging Pacific Rim, and a few other isolated places, with their trade summitry and computer-information highways. Outside is the rest of mankind, going in a completely different direction."
Activities
A. Social Problem Scrapbook
Objective: Students will identify social problems in their neighborhood, community, town or city.
Procedure: Students can list many social ills, either witnessed in their neighborhood, or seen on the news. Brainstorm a list of problems which may include arrests, number of children living below the poverty level Ask two students to serve as "illustrators" at a white board or chalkboard. Ask the class to name all the social concerns they can think of - poverty, homelessness, hunger, drug abuse, crime, disease, etc. Ask the illustrators to list all of these. Start a large scrapbook/display where students, each day, search the newspaper for crimes committed in their neighborhood, town, city, or a nearby city. Then ask the class to identify the correlation, if any, of these social concerns and population size and growth. If the class determines that any of these issues are not related to population, ask them to detail the cause.
B. Correlating Population and Social Stresses in Connecticut
Objective: Students will create a scattergram using city population data in Connecticut and social indication data. They will graph their data and conclude that the most populated areas scored poorly using several social indicators.
Procedure: Using Connecticut's Children: A Cause For Hope (The Connecticut Association for Human Services, Hartford; sample data tables provided in Appendix), and data from the census bureau, students rate Connecticut towns and cities by population, and rate by regional indicators: child death rate, infant mortality rate, and juvenile violent arrest crime rate. Students conclude and confirm population correlates with social stress indicators. Another source of data is on the internet: the census home page (www.census.gov) Choose ACCESS TOOLS. Next choose 1990 CENSUS LOOKUP. Then choose either STF3A (for socio economic data) or STF1A (for detailed population and housing data). Choose a state. Submit. Also see the State of Connecticut home page (www.state.ct.us) Choose AGENCIES, then DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, then RESEARCH, then CEIS, then INCOME.
Students should plot population of Connecticut's towns and cities on the X axis, and plot one social indicator on the Y axis. Students may form teams to plot each of the social indicators, or the teacher may use transparencies placed upon one another to show correlation of population and each of the social stress indicators.
(Alternative resource) In Connecticut, students can examine data from Connecticut Magazine in its "Rating of the towns" November 1996 issue. On page 53, students will find data from which they can build bar charts to show relative crime rates, economies and education assessments. They will discover Connecticut's largest cities have the highest crime rates and their schools are rated poorest. How might population contribute to these statistics?
C. Civility's Decline
Objective: Students decide if overpopulation contributes to rudeness in their community.
Procedure: Read "No, please, after you", by David Taylor in Forbes, September 22, 1977 p.36. How might students compare Los Angeles with their own city? What conflicts do they encounter while walking or in a car because of city congestion. Are people they encounter daily pleasant? Has overpopulation in their area already affected their way-of-life? Write a persuasive letter to the editor of their local newspaper asking community citizens to be more civil.
